A New March On Washington

August 20, 2013|Letter to the editor

The photo of the 1963 March on Washington [Opinion, Aug. 18, "That Day: The Bus, Henry Armstrong and the Work Left Undone"] shows people carrying signs with demands that black Americans were hopeful of making progress on back then -- attaining jobs and decent pay, protecting voting rights, ending segregation in public schools, first-class citizenship, ending police brutality.

We have seen progress, but those demands have still not been met more than 50 years later.

The conclusion of this article should have been that a new March on Washington must encompass all of America. Let's forget the racial divide. The nation's attention is focused on irrelevant issues.

Those most important to our future should appear in signs that say: "We stand for self-reliance. We believe in the law. Dying fighting our neighbors is stupid. Our families must stay together. We will vote at every election no matter what the candidate's race."

The government will not be the savior for African Americans or any other races. Instead, what we believe in and work toward is what can take us to the mountain top.

Bank tellers are not all white anymore, but adding honest savings to one's bank account is more important.